Naramachi, Nara

Clean and tidy. The building is 100years old and very traditional looking. The bed was soft and comfortable. One negative point was that there are no thick walls dividing each room so you might have to be a bit quiet.

Spending the night at guesthouse naramachi was one of the highlights on our trip. Don't mind that bad review because there's signs that clearly tells the rules and you have to read all of the rules before you are allowed to check-in.

Dear wanjing wang,   Thank you for staying with us on the night of May 20th. We are sorry that you had experienced such a bad moment in the morning when you left.  We hope you still enjoyed your time in Nara.   We always ask guests to read the rules for staying at our guesthouse when you check in. It is written clearly that the check-out time is10am. However, we have luggage service to store your luggage if you would like to enjoy this beautiful town of Nara after checking out. We understood that you wanted to go around the town by bicycle on that day, so we put your luggage downstairs to clean the room to prepare for the next guests. We are so sorry for misunderstanding, and we hope you understand that there are different rules for each hotel especially for small guesthouses like us run by an old couple. Best wishes, Naramachi Gueshouse Owner

The building of Guesthouse Naramachi was a traditional Japanese residence, and it was built approximately 100 years ago. The traditional room of Japan is partitioned off with 3cm thick door made of paper called a Fusuma, a sliding paper door. In the structure of the building, it is easy to hear the sound of the next room. Nevertheless the request of many visitors is to stay in a traditional room. Why? This is because they can discover many traditional ways of life and unique Japanese culture. Guesthouse Naramachi is not a party house for the purpose of late-night activity and eating and drinking. When guests stay here, we want to make a nice atmosphere for everybody to have good night's rest. Therefore the lobby is closed after 11:00 p.m. For guests who want to take a bath, we recommend the large public bath near the guest house(open 12am-12pm). There are five public baths within a 5-minute walk. Guests can use two showers between check-in and 11:00 p.m. Also they can use them between morning and check-out. We're happy to help you to enjoy staying in a traditional residence in the ancient capital of Japan!

I had a terrible stay. The owner had too much rules about everything. The place is old and so are their facilities. You will not feel welcomed at all. Don't do this, don't do that, is all the feeling you will get, as if you're a monkey without any manner if they don't tell you all the rules one by one. I work a lot with Japanese people, these are very typical Japanese trait that I often get from my clients. However I accept them because those are work-related. Staying in a guesthouse is a pleasure-related activities, and I will not accept such behavior without a complaint. I feel that the owner should not open this house for overseas people as their way of running things is most certainly does not fit to receive overseas customer. Some of the things that I have trouble with: (1) They turn off the light on 10 pm (!!!). (2) You have no space to work or talk to your friends anymore after they turn off the lights. You practically have to FOLLOW their PRIVATE lifestyle. (3) You cannot use shower in the afternoon. (4) You practically have to "reserve" your shower. If you're not good with schedules, then this is going to be a trouble for you. (5) You can only use shower in 15 minutes time frame. (6) They ask us to be "silent" all the time yet they have the noisiest wooden house ever built on earth.